Review: Botanic Gardens Restaurant

The Botanic Gardens Restaurant displays an almost seamless transition between garden and plate. One I’ll certainly visit again when the season changes.

A kitchen garden can be a chef’s secret weapon. Seasons set the tone of menus, which change as the last fruits fall or when new sprouts bloom, and the Botanic Gardens Restaurant’s garden takes fresh and local to another level. Paul Baker’s garden would make Stephanie Alexander mint-green with envy. The Botanic Gardens Restaurant’s Head Chef forages, helped by a team of gardeners and kitchen staff, from acres upon acres of our city’s wondrous Botanic Gardens. His new backyard is a forager’s dream and between the natural sweep of trees, shrubs and native sprigs are specially planted gardens of fruits and vegetables that accommodate the fare of his restaurant’s menu. On first look, the restaurant appears like an everyday garden rotunda; a forest-green exterior helps the structure blend in with its environment, and walls of glass reflect the surrounding foliage; a chameleon in the trees, if you will. Contrasting the greenery is a stark interior. Everything is white, complete with freshly painted columns and trellises that detail abstract high-tea settings from days gone by. But you won’t find any doilies or cucumber sandwiches here. The salty fresh-baked bread, with squid ink and a blackened leek crust, is toned-down with lashings of house-made cultured butter. More please. An amuse bouche showcases the kitchen garden, with freshly picked just-ripe tomatoes and candied radishes providing zing and crunch to get the tastebuds moving. One bite is hardly enough, but the main event is on its way. The menu’s entrée selection seems too much of a good thing. Though tempted by the prospects of seared hiramasa kingfish or Savannah Farm nomadic chicken galantine with shitake mushrooms, pistachios, cumquat and fennel, we settle on beetroot-cured salmon with flavour-packed dollops of fennel mousse. The dish’s height is provided by shards of salmon crackling, a sliver of radish and crispy fennel chips, alongside a pork terrine plate with an herbaceous taste, topped with fresh pea tendrils and devoured in minutes. A glass of Geoff Hardy K1 Grüner Veltliner is a match made in the Garden of Eden, with notes of orange and a fruity finish harmonising each mouthful of these divine little starters. Slow-cooked duck with slivers of citrus is a discreet adaption of a classic combination (with the nutty flavour of toasted pumpkin seeds and torn mint leaves on top). Strips of partially caramelised pumpkin, and a sweet dollop of carrot and nut-brown butter puree, has a pleasant equipoise against a sticky masterstock mixed in the base. Strips of Coorong Angus beef, cooked medium and served with inappropriately delicious short ribs in licorice root, are atop the creamiest of potato boulangere (literally translated as “potatoes from the Baker” – thanks, Chef), accompanied by beetroot emulsion, caramelised garlic and slices of hardly-cooked mushroom. There are only three desserts on the menu and picking just one is like choosing your favourite child – impossible. The pear tarte tatin, made with careme puff pastry, misses the cut on this visit, but the chocolate delice is a delectable substitute, with earl grey chocolate jelly and a slice of dehydrated orange (propped up by a splotch of mousse and a texturally bewildering freeze-dried mandarin segment). I rarely use the word ‘yum’ but there is no other word to describe the chocolate delice. A dessert of slightly tart rhubarb is poached in rosewater and forms beautifully in a pile of elements including whipped white chocolate, granola and delightfully chewy meringues. The lightly grilled petals make this the prettiest of desserts, as a papery texture contrasts the other elements and lessens the sweetness to an unimpeachable balance. The Botanic Gardens Restaurant displays an almost seamless transition between garden and plate. One I’ll certainly visit again when the season changes. Botanic Gardens Restaurant Lunch: Tuesday to Sunday from 12pm Breakfast: Saturday and Sunday, 8.30am to 11am botanicgardensrestaurant.com.au

Time

(Wednesday) 11:45 AM - 2:00 PM

Location

Intercontinental Adelaide

North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000

Event Details

The American Chamber of Commerce, South Australia is proud to present The Hon Jay Weatherill, Premier of South Australia as special guest speaker at the AmCham Business Luncheon on Wednesday, 11 October,

Event Details

The American Chamber of Commerce, South Australia is proud to present The Hon Jay Weatherill, Premier of South Australia as special guest speaker at the AmCham Business Luncheon on Wednesday, 11 October, 2017.

Join AmCham members and guests as The Premier speaks to the South Australian business community on South Australia’s economic priorities, the challenges and opportunities facing our State in 2017.

Jay Weatherill is South Australia’s 45th Premier.

Jay was born and educated in Adelaide’s western suburbs, completing his secondary education at Henley High School.

He is a lawyer with an economics degree, establishing his own law firm in 1995 and practicing until he was elected as the Member for Cheltenham in 2002. Jay was subsequently re-elected as Member for Cheltenham in 2006 and in 2010.

He has held a range of portfolios including Environment and Conservation, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister Assisting the Premier in Cabinet Business and Public Sector Management, Families and Communities, Housing, Ageing, Disability, Urban Development and Planning, Administrative Services, Local Government and Gambling. He is a member of the South Australian Executive Council.

Time

Event Details

The forever romance,the hundred year classic ,the most heart-warming dancing you will see this year.
The Russian National Ballet Theatre is coming back. They will bring the world's greatest classic ballet

Event Details

The forever romance,the hundred year classic ,the most heart-warming dancing you will see this year.

The Russian National Ballet Theatre is coming back. They will bring the world’s greatest classic ballet Romeo and Juliet this time.

The seamless choreographed by Evgeny Amosov based on the Prokofiev ballet in three Acts and classical music.The Russian National Ballet Theatre will bring audience into a antiquity tradition of tragic romances story.

“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo” – From William Shakespeare.